I recently found a good deal for a copy of McGuane's "The Longest Silence" on line, and it arrived today. I'll probably start going through it later on tonight.

I bet you’ll love it.

Indeed, from the git go. I like his style, and share many of his sentiments. I very well could have written the final paragraph of the "Sakonnet" piece, and probably have, somewhere. Lots of atypically used words, and I have to keep Google handy, but I don't mind, actually.

I'm going through the stories slowly, sharing time with a recently purchased copy of Reiger's "Profiles of Saltwater Angling". It's the fifth, I think, Reiger book that i now have. He's another one who's waters run deep.

Cloud of the Impossible: Negative Theology and Planetary Entanglement by Catherine Keller

What's with all the Keller stuff lately?

I simply happen to be reading through her whole corpus right now. I've always known that, at some point, it was going to be quasi-obligatory for me to seriously engage a Protestant theologian. Theoretically, it could've been any Protestant theologian, I s'pose. But due to a whole nest of considerations, she was the one that made the final cut.

And considering that the Alt-Left's likely ascendency over the next few years, encountering Keller seems doubly apt. Her newest work, Political Theology of the Earth, which is to be released this Fall, couldn't be more timely. Or maybe, as Nietzsche would say, "untimely".

Cloud of the Impossible: Negative Theology and Planetary Entanglement by Catherine Keller

What's with all the Keller stuff lately?

I simply happen to be reading through her whole corpus right now. I've always known that, at some point, it was going to be quasi-obligatory for me to seriously engage a Protestant theologian. Theoretically, it could've been any Protestant theologian, I s'pose. But due to a whole nest of considerations, she was the one that made the final cut.

And considering that the Alt-Left's likely ascendency over the next few years, encountering Keller seems doubly apt. Her newest work, Political Theology of the Earth, which is to be released this Fall, couldn't be more timely. Or maybe, as Nietzsche would say, "untimely".

In that second book, there, in the subtitle, "planetary emergency." That sure sums up the state of this 'ol world.

"At present we're on the wrong side of the door. But all the pages of the New Testament are rustling with the rumor that it will not always be so." ~ C.S. Lewis

I would like to argue that we very early "boomers," born in the immediate aftermath of WWII are a very different breed than later "boomers." Somehow, the notions of civic virtue, prudence, faith, civility, literacy and respect for others--characteristics of our grandparents' and parents' generations--remained alive in us. Children born a decade later had a bit too much Dr. Spock in them unless their parents were exceptional.

The "me" generation of later boomers seems to me another generation entirely.

This will pain you as it does me, Cardinal Morley: that is the generation we had to fight to keep Shakespeare in our literature curriculum.

Hard to believe, but true.

I cannot begin to communicate the level of Schadenfreude I feel listening to my 40 year old son lamenting the shortcomings of the Millennials he is now hiring and having to teach this thing called "The Work Ethic."

At any rate, I look forward to reading your chapter on del when it is finished, should you choose to write it, and especially eager to learn your take on kilts.

Boomers are defined as born from '46-'64, so I'm within your first subgroup. My younger brother is in your second subgroup, but no matter, since our parents were indeed exceptional.
The above said, there's still much that could go into this. Parents wanted their children to be better off than themselves, financially and in other ways as well. They took out loans to finance vacations each summer. They were in unions and went on strike. It was common to hear friends of mine brag that they entered the job market at higher pay than their dads, as though it was only through their own achievements.
Anyway ...the book looks interesting. I'll look for a copy.